According to a new report by Ambient Insight, the US corporate market for Self-paced eLearning reached $5.2 billion in 2007. Although overall growth is slowing due to the recession, the recession is also acting as a growth catalyst for certain types of products and services.

The report, called “The US Corporate Market for Self-paced eLearning Products and Services: 2008-2013 Forecast” and analyzes expenditures by four company sizes: small, medium, large, and enterprise. The report also provides analysis on the buying behavior of ten vertical industries and a breakout of the top selling content areas by subject matter.

The corporate demand for self-paced E-Learning products in 2008-2013 is now growing at a five year growth rate of 8.7% down from 18.3% in the 2007-2012 forecast period. By contrast, the demand in the small organization sub-segment doubled from 4.20% to 8.51% in the same period.

“We have revised forecasts downward from previously published reports,” comments Sam S. Adkins, Chief Research Officer. “The lowered forecasts are primarily due to the pricing pressures in the enterprise that mask the positive growth outside the enterprise. The growth in the other three corporate sub-segments is quite healthy because of the recession, not in spite of it.”

“The market has been in a ‘post-enterprise’ period for several years,” adds CEO Tyson Greer. “The enterprise still represents 48% of the entire corporate market and while the revenue opportunities are still abundant, margins are eroding and the competition is now fierce. Consequently, the revenues outside the enterprise have become the low-hanging fruit for suppliers.”

The overall corporate training and education market has been sinking at a 2-3% rate since 2000-2001 due to cost efficiencies achieved with learning technology, the offshoring of jobs and the reduction of training benefits.

The research indicates that the current demand in the enterprise has a negative growth rate of -5.5%. In contrast, the demand in small companies doubled from 4.20% in the 2007-2012 forecast period to 8.51% in the 2008-2013 period. The demand in the large and medium-sized companies is relatively robust at 16.3% and 26.7% respectively.